BF àtoddler, how many times a day?

[Fazerina]

DS is 19 months and recently due to a thread on here, I started paying more attention to how many times a day he feeds. I counted the times yesterday, which was a pretty typical day and it was 7 times in 24 hours. At times, when he's teething or ill, I know it's more than that. I'm just curious to hear how much other toddlers around this age BF..

[Fazerina]

Wuups, sorry about the typo in the tittle, I'm on my phone

[BertieBotts]

DS was about the same at that age, possibly even more. He cut down a bit somewhere between 2 and 3 years old, but it wasn't until he was about 3 that he went down to morning and night only.

[Fazerina]

Thanks for your reply, it's always reassuring to hear your tots behaviour isn't unusual:)

How was your DS' eating at this stage if you remember?

My DS is verey unpredictable in the amount of food he eats and absolutely refuses all (yes ALL) fruit. That's why I give him Abidec. More recently I've started worrying about his iron-levels, as he now refuses meat.. I know the fussiness is the norm rather than the exception at this age, but it's frustrating none the less..

[EauRougelyNight]

Both mine fed more than that. I never counted but I'm pretty sure we would have got to 7 by lunch time DD1 is very fussy still. There's a really good book called My Child Won't Eat by Carlos Gonzalez that you might find reassuring.

[ChocolateCoins]

I'm pregnant and my milk supply has deduced loads in the last few weeks but before that, my 16 month old was still havingloads of feeds. Probs every 2/3 hours? And wouldn't eat anything. Her diet was literally 95% milk. I really dont know how these mums got down to just morning and night feeds by this age! I was secretly jealous!

So basically what I'm saying is don't worry about it. I'm sure there are loads of toddlers out there having way more bfs than your DD. As long as she's active, putting on weight and seems well, she'll be fine.

[ChocolateCoins]

Your DS! Sorry

[BertieBotts]

DS' eating at 19 months was actually shit, he barely ate anything at all (we're talking maybe two mouthfuls in an entire day, sometimes) until he was 22 months when he suddenly just seemed to start liking food.

In fact this was very stressful at the time, HVs etc were very keen for me to wean him because they were worried he was filling up on milk but if I even tried restricting food I found it just made him eat less. I was very glad that he continued to breastfeed during this time, in retrospect. He's now 4 and a healthy weight, in fact, he's been in the higher centiles since he was about 3, whereas as a baby he always hovered around the 25th. He's tall for his age and his weight is in line with his height.

[Fazerina]

Hello all and thanks so much for replying!

Eau, I looked up that book and found it on Ebay for around £2.50 so I might actually invest in it, if only I'll find enough time to read..

Chocolate, yes DS is active and seems very well so I know it's just me stressing over his non ìnterest in food.

Bertie, good to hear your DS has now managed to go up the centiles. My DS has never had an issue with weight and until 1yo was steadily following the 75th centile and since then the 50th. As he is such a fussy eater, I'm also very happy that he's still breastfeeding. The only slight concern I have is iron, as I know the milk might not provide adequate amounts and he's not very keen on meat. I try to add spinach and parsley in his food as often as possible though. Fruit is another story though: he simply will not even touch any kind of fruit, even fruits he's never seen before, it's like he has sixth sense! Every time we go to toddler groups I make sure he sits at the tabble with the other kids so he sees them enjoying cut-up fruits, but he just doesn't want to try them.

I'm fine with the amount of times he breastfeeds and I'm not looking to stop in the foreseeable future, although teething times can be tiring with him latched on 24/7. A friend of mine stopped BF her 23-month-old DS nearly two months ago, because her DH was so unsupportive. Surprisingly, her DS took it very well and has only asked for the breast once ever since. My friend is still very sad about it and just thinking about it makes me sad, so at least for now, I'm determined to let DS self-wean..

[DW123]

20 month DT2 feeds about 7 times in 24 hours (half at night). DT1 feeds about 3-4 times in same period. Food intake is erratic - no real aversions but some hungry or not hungry days. They eat enough for me to (nearly) not worry.

[butterfingerz]

My DS is 18 months and though I've not counted, feeds more than 7 times a day, feeds about 3 times at night too. Very fussy with food, the only fruit he'll eat is blueberries and strawberries (expensive!). I too give him vitamins.

My dd was fully bottlefed and she pretty much existed on bottles until 2yrs and then her appetite for food picked up, if its any reassurance that its not just a breastfeeding thing.

[AngelDog]

DS was at least 7-8 day feeds, 1-5 night ones till 2 y.o. when I got pg. He ate lots too, though was (still is!) fussy.

[Fazerina]

DW123 does your DT1 have those 3-4 feeds during the day or also at night time? Just trying to figure out when you find time to sleep:)..

butterfingerz that's interesting to hear about your DD. And just proves my point to a HV, who advised me to stop BF when DS was around 7 months and to switch to bottles. She thought that would help his appetite with solids as well as his sleeping and also according to her "your BM is good as water anyway by now" !

We've had a few pretty good days food-wise now and today I googled 'how many calories a day for a 19-month-old'() and found somewhere that it's roughly 50cal/lb. Does this sound right? According to that my DS would need around 1250 calories daily.. I counted the calories in the food he had today (yes I'm that hardcore:)) and it came to around 600, so that would mean hypothetically that he gets the other 600 from BM. As kellymom seems to suggest that at around 1.5 years old half of the daily energy requirements are typically met with BM, we seem to be on target:)..

[HappyAsASandboy]

My twins have just turned two.

When I am at work, they each feed first thing last thing and probably 2 or three times in the night, so 4 or 5 times per DT in 12 hours (and 0 for the other 12 hours). When I am home they feed maybe twice in the day, making 6 or 7 feeds per DT in 24 hours.

[HappyAsASandboy]

I forgot to comment on food!

They both eat very well, normally manage a reasonable breakfast, lunch and dinner, with snacks in between. They drink about two tommee tippee dippy cups of cows milk per day as well.

[Greenwitch7]

My 19 month old is bf mad,uses it as comfort,as we're moving in 2 weeks don't want to change at mo,co sleeping too,happy to continue til settled in new house..my only real concerns are; ttc again (iui last time 3rd time lucky) and 42,so time not on our side,and on a slightly unrelated topic (apologies i'm not vg at using site and threads well)...has anyone had a child who wakes 2,3,4 times a night literally screaming,hitting her own head,rolling round beside herself in fury/distress? asked hv who just gave me sleep training handout and said we had to cut bf down to 2 a day,and just to let her scream in her cot not picking her up,i explained she gets sooo upset if not cuddled when tired (i'm happy to do this)she makes herself sick,hv advice just let her! even when i'm sur eshe's so hysterical she'll bang her head and hurt herself (she can do this)any advice?dd a fiery little madam but extremely loving and confident,have done attachment parenting without knowing what i was doing by instinct had a name, big fan of dr. sears,why have no hv's ever read these methods?

[Fazerina]

Hi there Greenwitch7 and sorry to hear you're having a hard time with your DD's sleep. I'm really no expert and DS's sleep has always been pretty crap (we co-sleep too and so far it's worked better than any other option so intend to continue..). However, I wonder if your DD might be in teething pain at night time? DS was constantly waking up sort of hitting his jaw on both sides when the first back teeth were cutting through and I gave him a large pillow to sleep on and some ibuprofen, which seemed to ease up the pressure. The pillow was to raise his upper body to an approximately 45 degree angle, as I had heard that lying flat can sometimes cause them pressure when they're teething (I've noticed the same when I have a migraine btw).. Maybe worth a try?

Oh and please don't listen to your HV!! She sounds like a cruel old witch to suggest CIO without first even considering possible underlying illness (like an ear infection) or teething etc. !

[Greenwitch7]

bless you,thanks for support,i took her to drs 3 days ago to rule out ear infection,all teeth at least partially tgrough.i'll try pillow but she rolls round so much i usually wake to find her upside down or horizontal,last few nights had same wake ups though less intense screaming

[Greenwitch7]

ps,anyone any idea how much bf really affects conception/implantation?

[DW123]

Hi Fazerina - sorry DT1 feeds 3-4 times in 24 hours - most during the day luckily! He wakes maybe once at night so between the two of them I get 3-4 wakings a night. Hope that makes a bit more sense! If I sleep between wakings I'm ok but, yep, sooo looking forward to more sleep.

[Fazerina]

DW123 ok that sounds a bit more manageable with your nights, although I must say (and you probably get this all the time!), it must be so hard with twins!

Greenwitch7 hm I'm not sure about how bfing affect fertility, although I'd be interested to know too:).. I thought once you get your regular periods back you should be able to conceive. But then again, I recently learned you can actually have monthly bleeds without ovulating every time.. Have you checked if you're ovulating?

[TiddlyOmPomPomPaRumPaPumPum]

DS is nearly 20mo now and usually just has morning and bedtime feeds, but he's been ill over Xmas so has been feeding a lot more, prob x10, inc at night when he couldn't settle to sleep.

I had been hoping to wean him off soon, but have been very grateful for bfing the last few days would have been awful without it!

[MamaChocoholic]

I think my dts were having 3 feeds a day: wake up (1 hour!), after nursery, and before bed. We got down to so few because they tandem feed, which I can't do in public, and because they are in nursery, so the day feeds got dropped. Then I night weaned to try and get more sleep. They are now 2.3, still feed twice a day (more over Christmas), and still wake twice a night each (so I'm up 4 times), so night weaning hasn't helped there.

However, they are eating more food, but I think that's down to age and somehow unrelated to how much milk they have, they both drink cow's milk too, and I think the total amount of milk stays about constant.

[Leviathan]

My dt is 26 mo, bf anything up to 6x a day, and very pernickity with food. He's also still waking for night feeds which i would like to stop so we can get some more sleep but not sure how?

Yesterday he had 1 bf at 4am and the next not til 8pm and ate a bit more than usual i.e. bit of scrambled egg for breakfast, then mash, sausage and beans for tea (eating tea is pretty unusual!)

But looking at this thread, (so glad I found it) sounds like dts are often picky and not just if bf -ing. Also he has recently had loads of illness, so could be just not hungry? He seems healthy, lively, chatty and on 50-75 centile so I'm not worried about nutrition (most of the time).

He seems to eat better when he is going to nursery and less well at weekends/ holidays when i am around to hassle for milk!

Also, my periods haven't come back yet, (male) doc suggests I should stop bf as impacting my health - is this true? I have been pretty run down, but feel that is lack of sleep, illness, work, stress etc as after having more sleep over xmas, feel a lot better! anyone else had this long with out a period due to bf??

[Fazerina]

TiddlyOmPomPomPaRumPaPumPum I know what you mean; my DS recently had what I think was the norovirus, and I was also so happy to still be breastfeeding to get some good nutrition in him.

MamaChocoholic that's interesting to hear that your DTs haven't stopped waking even after having been night weaned. So many people seem to think night weaning will stop the night waking..

Leviathan sorry to hear you're feeling a bit run down. I don't think BFing is supposed to make you feel that way. I would get an appointment with the GP to check your iron and vitamin D levels if I were you. Actually, a male doc told me to stop BFing for the sake of my health too, but I just brushed it off as a stupid piece of advice, as he didn't elaborate on it further.. In my case, the doc was a rheumatologist though, and I think he might have said that, because BFing makes your joints more supple, which could contribute to the aches and pains I have I suppose. But I haven't stopped and don't intend to anytime soon either..